beautiful + crafted + life

DIY Wrought Iron

Now, I’m sure you’ve all seen this or heard of them out in blog-land. Last year at some point I decided I wanted to give this a go, and started saving all the paper towel/toilet paper holders I could get my hands on, and in hindsight, I’d suggest only saving the paper towel ones, as they are thicker, therefore a bit more on the sturdy side.

This was a super easy project, but I won’t lie…very time consuming. But I like the look if gave us in the end, so I’m happy!

What you’ll need:

A BUNCH of paper towel cardboard holder thingies…

Glue, I used wood glue

4 pieces of Poplar wood – I used 1/2 x 2 x 4

Brad nails

Wood Filler

Spray paint

Patience and time…lots of it

What you’ll do:

~Flatten the cardboard rounds down, I put my in between heavy books, I wanted to have those creases nice and crisp

~If you have a paper slicer, use it, and cut all the cardboard rounds to the size you want, some of mine came out bigger than others, but I like the variation it gave. I probably have anywhere from 1/2″ to 3/4″

~Glue two end together, if you have tiny clams, use them, or do like I did, and hold….go buy some of those clamps, well worth the money! Repeat..

~Take those two pieces together, and glue to the other piece, so now you’ll have a bit of a “four-petal flower” look…let drum…

See how once glued they get that “flower” look….Ok, good….I swear I had more pictures, in-between the new computer switch over, it looks like I lost photos…bummer

~Lather, rise, repeat…OK don’t lather or rinse, just repeat…over and over and over….

~I made enough to have 2 pieces and 6×6 each so 36 each…so 72 total….wheeew…

~Once all your “flowers” are made, glue them together in rows, as I said I did 6 in each row. Repeat this step again, and then a few more times after that.

~Once all rows are dry, glue those together, once this is complete, let it dry, COMPLETELY. (And since we were about to move at this point, mine got about 5 months worth of drying time – I started this the end of JANUARY…yes, I know, I am a procrastinator)